12 MAY-JUNE 2008 PJR REPORTS

SO YOU
WANT TO
WORK IN
THE MEDIA

Photos by LITO OCAMPO

Contractualization is com-
mon among broadcast net-
works because contractual em-
ployees allow it, Samson Cor-
dova, president of the National
Alliance of Broadcast Unions
lowed if employees were regu-
lar. For example, Jocarlos Mo-
rales, cameraman, audio man,
and lights man for GMA-7’s docu-
mentary program I-Witness, has
chosen not to apply for regular-
allowance and meal allowance as
his benefits. Even worse, talents
are not allowed to consume their
meal allowances unless they have
already worked for 10 hours, he
said.

M
n By the PJR Reports staff
(NABU) explained. NABU is an ization because the management Media workers in ABC-5, on
EDIA PRACTITIONERS have yet to see alliance formed in 2001 by 10 will prohibit him from accepting the other hand, are better off com-
company-based unions in six extra jobs. It is considered a “mor- pared with their counterparts in
better wages and benefits, despite
television stations and one ra- tal sin” for a regular employee other networks. Ed Lingao, head
years of campaigning for an improve- dio station. in GMA-7 to work for other pro- of ABC-5’s News Operation De-
ment of working conditions. Issues of Some talents work for one grams, he said. partment, said ABC-5 newsroom
wages, tenure, and job security have program or more while accept- employees get higher wages com-
also haunted media workers for decades. ing projects from other networks. Prepaid cell cards pared to those in other, bigger
They call this “naglalagari” Morales receives a net pay of stations. ABC cameramen could
“Talents ” not employees ing to Felisberto Verano, presi- which means more earnings for P7,000 per month with only a earn from P15,000-P20,000, de-
Contractualization is com- dent of ABS-CBN’s Rank and File employees. This would not be al- monthly P300 prepaid cell card pending on seniority. Reporters’
mon in the Philippine media. Employees Union, reporters un- salaries range from P13,000 to
Most TV networks hire reporters der the IJM receive only a quar- P30,000. Senior reporters or corre-
and other media workers as “tal- ter of the usual rice subsidy, their spondents who are already in the
ents” or program-based employ- health plans do not include de- supervisory level earn more.
ees. Talents have no job security pendents, and their bonuses de-
as they are not officially em- pend on performance. More stable
ployed by the media companies. On the other hand, Union Manila-based broadsheets, on
Positions considered as talents members—who are regular em- the other hand, generally offer a
include reporters, producers, re- ployees under Republic Act (RA) more stable working environ-
searchers, and production assis- No. 6715—receive full rice subsi- ment. Most Manila-based jour-
tants. dies, insurance and bereavement nalists working for major na-
Most ABS-CBN Broadcasting pay, and bonuses including up to tional broadsheets are regular
Corp. reporters, for example, are 15th month pay especially when employees and receive benefits
hired by Internal Job Manage- company profits are up. RA 6715, like transportation and food al-
ment (IJM), an in-house agency or the Herrera Law, prohibits lowances.
overseeing the influx of talents contractual workers from joining The Philippine Daily Inquirer
and their assignments. Accord- rank-and-file workers’ unions. pays the highest salaries among
 PJR REPORTS
the Manila broadsheets. Employ-
ees’ benefits include 13th month
pay, parental and other kinds of
leaves, rice subsidies, and insur-
ance, mostly because of the ef-
forts of the workers’ union.
According to Inquirer re-
porter Jeannette Andrade, who
has been with the Inquirer since
March 2007, she receives a
monthly salary of between
P15,000 to P20,000. She gets the
usual benefits such as bereave-
ment and hazard pay, rice subsi-
dies, 13th month pay, and health
insurance among others. The
company, she said, also has a
regularization policy through
which a reporter is regularized
after six months.
Similarly, The Philippine Star
reporter Iris Gonzales described
her working relationship with
Star as “healthy.” “I have a
healthy professional relationship
with my superiors. The paper is
run by a competent team. The
compensation is also very com-
petitive,” Gonzales said in an e-
mail interview.
Measly rates
The same salary and benefits
cannot be said to apply to corre-
spondents. Unlike Manila-based
reporters, most correspondents
are not considered regular em-
ployees, so they do not receive
standard salaries and benefits.
Most correspondents also do not
have any contract with the news
organizations, meaning they
have no employer-employee re-
lationship with the news organi-
zations they work for.
Each month’s take home pay
varies for each correspondent.
There are months when some
correspondents would only take
home a measly P3,000 while oth-
ers receive about P10,000 to P25,
000. This is because everything
depends on how many of their
stories got printed.
Most news organizations pay
correspondents only for pub-
lished stories. Inquirer correspon-
dents, for example, are paid based
on the length and placement of
their printed articles. One In-
quirer correspondent said the
company pays P0.30 per charac-
ter or P35 per column inch. Thus,
correspondents could get as low
as P150 and as high as P2,000 per
story. If their story is merged
with that of other reporters, the
payment would be divided
among the number of reporters
(one could get as low as P20 for a
merged story). Other newspapers
pay their correspondents for
published stories regardless of
length. Tabloids have lower rates
compared to broadsheets, going
as low as P5 per column inch.
Manila Bulletin correspon-
dents, for their part, are treated
as talents and are paid on a per
article basis.
Some correspondents receive
certain benefits only after meet-
ing certain criteria, while others
do not receive anything at all.
Inquirer correspondents who
reach the 50-column inch mini-
mum each month “could avail of
transportation, Internet, and cell
card allowances totaling P2,150,”
according to Inquirer correspon-
dent Nestor Burgos Jr. Some
newspaper correspondents also
qualify for a monthly retainer’s
fee s low as P1,000 in addition to
what they’re paid for published
stories.
All work and no pay
There are also correspon-
dents—either based in Manila or
in the provinces—who are not
paid at all. Eight months after
leaving The Daily Tribune,
Rommel Lontayao has yet to re-
ceive his complete paycheck
from the paper. At the end of his
three-month stint as a Tribune
correspondent covering the Ma-
nila City Hall and nearby gov-
ernment agencies, he received
only P5,000. That was a month’s
pay, he told PJR Reports. He does
not know how the Tribune came
up with that figure considering
that the paper had regularly pub-
lished two or three of his articles
each day for three months. The
Tribune, he said, promised to pay
him P100 for every published ar-
ticle. Lontayao is now a full-time
reporter for The Manila Times.
Since provincial correspon-
dents generally get lower sala-
ries compared with those based
in Manila, some work elsewhere
for extra income without, they
say, succumbing to corruption.
Correspondents, for example, can
send articles to local or regional
newspapers.
“There are also NGOs which
commission writing assign-
ments, and Internet-based news
outfits that pay hefty sums for
contributed articles,” Bong
Sarmiento, BusinessWorld corre-
spondent in Mindanao, said.
Photographers share a simi-
lar fate with correspondents.
Dennis Sabangan, chair of the
Philippine Center for Photo-
journalism, said that while
photographers for wire agen-
cies are paid P1,500-P3,000 per
picture, the biggest newspapers
in the country pay only P150-
P250 per picture, P500 if it is
used on the front-page. He said
tabloids pay a meager P50 per
picture. Aside from having
more freedom with their work,
wire-based photojournalists are
given more time to create pic-
tures and are provided with all
necessary equipment and sup-
port.
‘A long and trying campaign’
The poor economic conditions
of media workers undermine the
quality of journalism in the coun-
try. “How can a journalist write
critically if his pay is low, if he
can be fired anytime by his news-
paper, or if his newspaper does
not have an advertisement be-
cause the journalist criticized a
multinational corporation?,”
asked National Union of Journal-
ists of the Philippines (NUJP)
chair Jose Torres Jr. “That com-
pany would not advertise in the
newspaper and because of that,
the (journalist’s economic) situa-
tion will not improve.”
The poor economic conditions
of journalists thus affect the exer-
cise of press freedom. Torres said
that in reality, the Philippine
media are not as free as many
think, since journalists are depen-
dent on the economic interests of
media organizations.
These conditions are among
the factors responsible for media
corruption. Torres said that while
some reporters can be challenged
and inspired by poor working
conditions to fight harder for
press freedom and better work-
ing conditions, some succumb to
unethical practices such as accept-
ing bribes. Some reporters also
double as public relations offic-
ers of local government officials,
while others solicit and/or accept
money in exchange for favorable
coverage.
It is not surprising, according
to Philippine Press Institute execu-
tive director Jose Pavia, to find
journalists who are unethical be-
cause they have to make ends
meet. Some, he told PJR Reports,
line up at politicians’ offices to ask
for transportation money, which
can be as little as P20.
Pavia said journalists should
be properly compensated to stop
the mediocrity—abundant as it is
at present—in the news coverage.
“If you give peanuts, what do
you get?” he asked. “Monkeys.”
Redmond Batario, executive
director of the Center for Com-
munity Journalism and Develop-
ment, agreed.
“One cannot expect a media
worker to turn in high quality
output when she is paid a pit-
tance, is not given benefits,
forced to work long hours, not
provided with the necessary
training and equipment, and
generally considered simply as
part of the fixture(s).” The cam-
paign to improve the economic
conditions of journalists will be
a long and trying effort, former
National Press Club president
Roy Mabasa said. “This is the
toughest problem that we (jour-
nalists) face,” Mabasa said, add-
ing “(w)hat we need to have is a
sustainable (solution), not a one
shot (deal).”
Pavia said news organizations
should ensure that they pay jour-
nalists well and on time. Other-
wise, the credibility and integrity
of the profession will continue to
be affected.
Advancing workers’ rights
Media unions have been ve-
hicles in advancing workers’
rights, looking for long-term
solutions to worsening labor
problems. Joel Paredes, chair
of the defunct Kapisanan ng
mga Manggagawa sa Media sa
Pilipinas, discussed in the book
Labor and Mass Media in the Phil-
ippines (1988) that the tough
MAY-JUNE 2008 13
competition in the media indus-
try has prompted media work-
ers to organize.
He said “(n)ewspapers con-
tinue to flood the market despite
the uncertainty of profit. So
many media owners expand op-
erations at the expense of the
workers’ economic benefits.”
This led, he said, to the organiza-
tion of unions as workers were
exploited by their respective
newspaper companies.
The Bulletin Progressive
Union (BPU) is one of the five es-
tablished unions in the print me-
dium. Other print organizations
which have unions are: The In-
quirer, Malaya, Manila Standard
Today, and the Journal Group of
Publications.
June Usuan, president of BPU,
said a regular employee is now
given benefits and allowances
such as sick and vacation leaves,
midyear and Christmas bonuses,
health insurance, and retirement
pay among others. Usuan, how-
ever, noted that correspondents,
together with the employees un-
der probation, are not covered by
the CBA and thus are not entitled
to benefits.
Contractual workers like cor-
respondents and talents, as stated
in the Herrera Law, do not have
bargaining rights like regular
employees. “So dahil wala kang
status, kung ano iyong nadatnan
mong systema, iyon ang susundin
mo (Because you do not have an
employment status, you just fol-
low whatever system they have
when you arrive),” Tonette
Orejas, a correspondent for the
Inquirer, said. She said Inquirer
correspondents are lucky to have
bureau chiefs who help them in
dealing with management.
In 2003, the Inquirer granted
their correspondents’ plea for
higher rates. NUJP has also
been successful in helping cor-
respondents get free copies of
newspapers from their respec-
tive companies.
On NABU’s part, Cordova
said the alliance is trying to ad-
dress the contractualization issue
among TV and radio workers by
working for an Industry Tripar-
tite Council (Government-Em-
ployers-Employees) that would
agree on defining the structure
of the broadcast media. He ex-
plained that the council would
serve as a venue for concerned
parties to talk about labor issues:
allowing all employees to join
unions, stating which jobs are
suitable for contractual and/or
regular employees, the standard-
ization of the wages of entry level
employees, and a CBA, among
others. n —with reports from
Andres Paolo V. Tanchuling and
Marrian P.R. Ching